Americans occupying Japan at the close of World War II claimed to be bringing religious freedom to a country where it did not exist. They described Japan's 1889 constitutional guarantee of religious freedom as false, and they claimed to be implanting 'real religious freedom' in its stead. But in making such claims, the occupiers overlooked inconvenient historical facts. This work shows that Japanese people were involved in a robust debate about religious liberty for decades before the occupation began, and it demonstrates that the American occupiers were far less certain about how to define and protect religious freedom than their triumphalist rhetoric suggested.

Prologue: the drums of war -- Conventions -- Introduction: the universal particularity of religious freedom -- A preoccupation with religious freedom -- The Meiji constitutional regime as a secularist system -- Who needs religious freedom? -- Domestic problems, diplomatic solutions -- In the absence of religious freedom -- The occupation of religious studies -- State shinto as a heretical secularism -- Who wants religious freedom? -- Universal rights, unique circumstances -- Out of the spiritual vacuum -- Conclusion: the bellicose pacifism of religious freedom -- Epilogue: songs of freedom.